"Flowers [and] Open-Air Exercises": An Archaeology of Patient, Cure, and the Natural World at the American Lunatic Asylum

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Health, Wellness, and Ability" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As the nineteenth century dawned in the United States of America, a new approach to the treatment and care of the mentally ill took hold. This movement, known as moral management, championed the delivery of kind treatment to patients within the orderly environment of the asylum, and structured regime designed to draw the insane from unhealthy habits and reinvigorate their self-regulative abilities. This paper examines how patients at two nineteenth- and early-twentieth lunatic asylums— the Western Washington Hospital for the insane in Steilacoom, Washington, and at the Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Williamsburg, Virginia—engaged with elements of the natural world, drawing out a multitude of meanings converged over and diverged around these items. While items derived from the natural world could serve the curative goals and rules of the institution, this class of material culture also offers a key to identifying patients’ action and reinforcing the patients voice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Health, Wellness, and Ability   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22934